Since we mostly keep the entire farm open to our herd, they often galloped through from one field to the other, which I love to see, but having our gates literally right on the edge of our property has always been problematic to me. If the neighbors had anything going on over there, the horses couldn’t get to the barn without passing right along that fence line. Since a large part of “what the neighbors had going on” often involved dogs who weren’t trained or on leashes and came through our fence, it wasn’t a good situation. We remedied that two years ago when we got the fencing replaced with 3-board/woven wire, but I continued to wish the gates were further in.
This spring the big posts the gates were hung on suddenly and out of the blue became loose. I have no idea why, but since they had to be replaced anyway we opted to go ahead and do the new design. One day as I was out pondering it occurred to me that I could use the far end of the dirt paddock as a dedicated garden space by simply fencing across the dirt paddock and rounding the two sides that border the pastures to avoid creating “dead zones” with sharp corners. This not only brought the gates closer to the barn, it completely removes the horses from being near that fence line, which for whatever reason seems to be a magnet for the neighbors and their guests.
The horses can move from one part of the farm to the other without ever going near that area. I think it turned out really well!
This is facing the new garden space, toward the neighbors. The little gate is my entry to the garden, and you can see the left side angling toward the exterior fence.
This is a closer shot of the garden gate, which I’ve opened.
From further back, looking toward the back pasture, and showing the new gate that goes to the back.
This is from the back pasture facing the front pasture, showing both gates. The horses can gallop through like they always have, but much nearer the barn now.
Overall, it’s so much better! And just in time. For the past month, the neighbor has had workers on her property and is yelling and screaming at them for not doing the work correctly. I’m very happy to have my horses well away from that behavior. Hopefully my garden space, and me being in it some of the time, will deter the rudeness. Maybe a “quiet please!” sign???
As you can imagine, I’m thrilled to be able to check this project off my master list. :)
4 comments:
I think it looks great and will work beautifully! I can't stand noisy neighbors and we do have one across the street from our farm. They're nice people but have the loudest voices. Not yelling or anything just really loud. Oh well, that's the price of having neighbors closer than you want them. Can't wait to see the raised beds.
Thank you!
This neighbor is loud in general but getting nastier the past few years. I definitely wish we had an extra acre on that side! Can’t wait to show you the raised beds! :)
Your fencing is so pretty. Looks like you've solved that problem elegantly.
I have noisy neighbors on either side now. One is just generally loud when he talks + likes to shoot guns for fun. The others feel that the day is not compete if there's no (random) chain sawing, except when it's invite the dirt bike club over day. My only recourse would be to fire up my tractor extra early on a weekend, but then I'd be part of the problem. A girl can dream can't she lol?
Thanks!
I feel we’re lucky to have 10 acres of nothing on one side and 100 acres of nothing behind us, though obviously this can and likely will change as time passes considering our location and proximity to the Triangle cities. I really dislike hearing someone yelling in a mean way at people trying to do work. They’re getting paid, but not everyone who does the hiring appreciates the difficulty of gardening/mowing/etc. There’s just no reason to treat people that way. If they aren’t doing the job you want them to do, pay them for the day and let them go. This is precisely why my farm helper is NOT working for the neighbor. I had to actively intervene to prevent that debacle.
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